As we head into the fall mailing season the stakes couldn’t be higher for the U.S. Postal Service at a time when legislators sit on their hands and ignore the postal crisis. You can bet they won’t delay in getting their election correspondence into the U.S. mail stream for direct communication with every home and business in America. This will likely be the biggest and most important election in history for the nation and postal employees. The level of election mail will be a visible indicator of the urgency and value our democratic society places on voting. Will you put an organized agenda in front of politicians or continue to let them put a list of partisan promises in front of you? Is your livelihood at stake based on the conclusion? Do you care?

Without doing your homework about the candidates and the issues voting will be like a lottery quick pick and the odds of the best candidate being picked will result in a no-win jackpot. If you prefer not to vote, then prepare for a dictatorship selected by friends of a candidate while you sit on the sidelines complaining about everything that is wrong with a democracy. The action to get out the vote uniformly applies to the general election, mayoral races, state governors, student councils, city governments, labor organizations, associations, and many other special circumstances for the people by the people.

Every election is your opportunity to elect the right person or slate of people to preserve your rights and freedoms. You don’t need a historian to remind you that you should not take the past for granted. It’s hard to believe this motherland continues to experience the hassles associated with voter identification, redistricting, and constituent suppression activities. Citizens must never forget about the struggles of the civil rights movement, women not having a right to vote, and the disparities of the hanging, dimpled, and pregnant Chad. Those are just a few indicators of how vital it is to protect and expand the ballot in this independent society. If the community is willing to argue and debate about the results of a vote count then the effects of the electoral process must be critically important. You don’t have to travel overseas to feel the pain of other nations, just turn on your TV, listen to radio broadcasts, and read the reports of people enduring extreme desert heat, cold temperatures, civil war, and bodies of water to get sovereignty associated with this autonomous turf respected for land of the free and home of the brave.

Even before the past two election cycles many of us remember hearing all the excuses about how folks couldn’t make it to the polls in time for Election Day. You know what they say about issues (it’s you). No more stuck on stupid (S.O.S) complaints suggesting; It’s raining outside, I don’t have a ride, I slept through it, I don’t like any of the candidates, I forgot to mail my ballot, I didn’t have a stamp, and I’m not registered. What you really are saying is you are a lazy bum that could care less about the past, the present, or the future.

The reality is nobody is beating you with a club to discourage you from making a difference, you are not being doused with pepper spray or other incapacitates, dogs are not being unleashed to deter you from making it to the polls, no one is charging you a fee to go behind the curtain, and there is no requirement for a literacy test. Many of our ancestors and people from all walks of American life have endured pain, sacrificed their lives, and in many cases would not shut up just so you could exercise the simple and most precious liberty. Don’t forget that military men and women are holding up the flag on foreign soil so you can do what you need to do at home. There is no valid excuse when you have the Constitutional right.

You have a voice on Election Day! It’s the perfect opportunity to bring along your weary and huddled masses to the booth to put a check mark in the block for the contenders and propositions that are in the best interests of supporters. Think about the leadership characteristics you are looking for in an individual to trust. This is the critical time to improve living conditions increase safety standards, develop health policies, laws, raise wages, lower taxes, revitalize educational principles, talk about crime prevention, and everything else. Voting will help you be part of the decision, but if you don’t participate you will live with the outcomes for generations to come. Adolescents turning eighteen years of age must get onboard because present and future elections will have a much longer lasting effect on their lives. A great website to teach underage generations, and big kids of all ages about the importance of voting is kidsvotingusa.org.

Solutions to help you cast your ballot include listening to the candidates speak, asking questions, reviewing the voting guide and the propositions, surfing the web, downloading free podcasts, figure out what’s going on in your city, your county, your workplace, and if you don’t like something then voting is one way to do something about it without handing over your freedom to someone else. On Election Day more than any other day everyone has the same net worth “one million dollars.” Instead of an “I voted” sticker the polls should give you a non-legal tender million dollar bill for making a difference. The nice thing about the voting process regardless of party affiliation is the secret ballot. So when someone asks you who you voted for all you have to say is I used my secret ballot to vote for “the best candidate.” A democracy doesn’t work where people don’t vote. Do your civic duty and cast your vote! And don’t forget elections have consequences.

Ronald Williams, Jr.